Talking About My Dad

As we celebrate Father’s Day, three writers describe the very different relationships they had with their fathers

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‘I was a daddy’s girl and my father was my rock’

VERONICA HENRY, 52, writes movingly about the father who was her rock, and his love of Ireland, where he grew up.

Every day in the middle of my divorce, when my marriage had fallen apart after 25 years and my world had turned upside down, one man called me every day. “This is your daily comfort call,” my father would say, and even if we didn’t discuss much, I would know he was there for me.

Sadly, the broadest pair of shoulders and the twinkliest pair of eyes went from my life overnight when my darling daddy died shortly after his 80th birthday last year. But, if ever there’s a crisis or a drama, I can still hear his reassuring voice, with its hint of County Kerry: “Ach now, everything’s going to be all right.”